Stories

What building a Package Manager taught me

Article news.ycombinator.com

What building a Package Manager taught me

The Package manager from the official Zig source, meaning "zig fetch" was very annoying. I hated having to first fetch the project from a URL, and then copy code into the build.zig, and then have no intellisense, and just GUESS what I have to write, and what I do not have to write. It was chaos.

So I fixed it, by building my own package manager, zeP. https://github.com/XerWoho/zeP

It is a simple package manager and Zig version manager.

What did I learn, though? First off, building a package manager requires INTENSIVE planning. I am currently still on pre-release, which is where big changes are to be expected, but the number of big changes I have already made has made me realize that I have to stop programming and start thinking before committing to something.

For example, my executable was named zeP, which is an issue for Linux users. They always had to type zeP, with the capital P, which is simply annoying.

Before that, I had a Zig version manager in zeP, which, after installing a Zig version, or switching to a version, changed the path to the file of the executable. Meaning it added a new path on each install or switch.

~/zig-0.15.1/x86-windows/:~/zig-0.13.0/x86-windows:~/zig-....

Some can see how bloated a PATH variable can get after a while, and not only that, it is completely useless, because I check if the path is in the PATH variable, and if it is, I do not add it. Meaning that (for the example above), zig 0.13.0 will never be used again, because it gets overshadowed by 0.15.1. To fix this, I use symlinks. Only on main path; ~/.local/bin, and within that path, zig, which is getting symlinked across installs and switches.

Symlinks looked very good to me, since I found out how pnpm works. Pnpm works with symlinks, reducing installs, delays, and sizes, because there is a main folder which has ALL the files, and they are getting linked across projects. But, there was a catch. If you uninstall a package, it deletes the package in the main folder, meaning all the other projects which might have that package installed will have a dangling symlink.

Again, the solution was simple. A manifest.json. In there, we store all the packages, with their linked projects. This will check the linked projects, and if it the package has no linked projects, only then, will it delete the package; else, it will just unlink the project.

Needless to say, there were a lot of issues that required testing and using zeP myself. Only by using my own product, could I determine the issues other people might have with it. But some people also gave feedback, after which I fixed a few issues.

zeP has its own custom printer struct. It receives data, and then re-prints it, by clearing the entire screen, and then printing again. This was done, so I had stuff like progress bars, etc. However a user hated the fact, that zeP literally hijacked your entire screen. So now, zeP only clears its OWN lines, and leaves your other stuff alone.

Building a package manager does not only require testing on my side, but also community feedback.

Discussion 0 comments · 2 points · xerrs · 2025-12-19
Open on HN
Loading the discussion…

Domain filters

Stories from these domains are hidden from every list. Subdomains match too: blocking substack.com also hides danluu.substack.com. Type a domain, or paste a link to block its site, and press Enter.

New collection

Delete this collection?

About YAVCHN

YAVCHN is a reader for Hacker News and Lobsters, with articles and discussions in separate windows or Classic pages.

Created by Paul Parks and built with PUDL.

YAVCHN source code on GitHub

Privacy policy · Terms of use

Help

Keyboard

j / k
Move down and up the story list. The arrow keys scroll whatever has focus.
Enter
Read the marked story in the article reader.
[ / ]
Read the story above or below in the list, in the same article reader. Back returns to the story you came from.
p
Pin or unpin the marked story, which keeps it in Pinned.
n / N
Move to the next or previous top-level comment in the window in front.
c
Collapse or expand that comment.
f
Hide or show the story list.
Esc
Close a menu or this help.
Access key m
Go to the menu bar. Most browsers take it with Alt on Windows and Linux, and Safari with Control and Option.
?
Show this help.

Windows

Each story opens in a window holding its article above its discussion; drag the bar between them to share the room differently. A window can be moved by its title bar, resized from any edge, snapped to a half or a corner by dragging it there, maximised, or minimised to the bar at the foot of the page. Use Window > New reader window to open an empty reader, or Story > Open in new reader window to open another reader for the current article. Docked readers keep their articles when you select another story from the sidebar. Minimized readers can be restored and reused for their site. A window's Previous and Next buttons read up and down the list in the same window.

A link in a comment or an article to another Hacker News or Lobsters thread opens that thread in a window too. A link to a single HN comment opens the comment above its replies.

While a story's window is in front, the Story and Discussion menus in the menu bar hold its commands: pinning, Previous and Next story, sorting, collapsing every thread, jumping to the first new comment. Each window also remembers where you were in its article and discussion, so a reload, or Back to a story that Next took you past, finds your place again. Closing a window forgets it.

The whole arrangement lives in the address, so a bookmark or a shared link brings it back, and Back undoes the last change. Moving between Hacker News, Lobsters, their lists, Pinned and Find changes only the list, and leaves the windows open.

The list

The pin at the start of a row keeps the story in Pinned, and the cross at its end hides it. Pinned can be narrowed by words in the title, site or author, by source, and to the stories you haven't opened yet, and ordered by when you pinned them, by points or by comments; the filters are part of the address, so a filtered view can be bookmarked. Scroll past the end of the list to load more. Domain filters, in the View menu, hide every story from a site.

Collections are named lists of stories. Story > Add to collection files the story in front into one or more of them, and the Collections feed shows them all or one at a time; the menu that chooses collections also creates, renames, and deletes them. A note is your own text on a story. Choose Add note in a story's toolbar to write one; it saves as you type. Rows with a note carry the note mark, and the Notes feed lists every noted story and searches the text of your notes.

Browsing view

View > Windowed and View > Classic select the browsing view and save your default in this browser. Window view reuses a reader for each feed. Classic view opens stories and applets as pages. Open as a page is a one-off action that does not change your saved default. Use the Windowed selector to return an article to a window. Direct page links always open as pages.

Applets

The Applets menu in the menu bar holds three tools, each a window of its own. Replies to me takes your Hacker News user name and lists the replies to your last thirty comments and stories, checking again every three minutes while it is open, and marking what is new since you last marked them read. Look up a user opens a profile on Hacker News or Lobsters, with their submissions and recent comments, as a commenter's name in any discussion does; the bar at the top of a profile looks up someone else in the same window, and Back returns to the one before. Who is hiring? filters the posts of HN's monthly hiring threads by the words you type.

They read only what the sites publish to everyone, so none of them asks for a login, and your user name stays in this browser anonymously and is included in retained applet state when signed in.

Find

Find takes any link and lists every time it was submitted to Hacker News and Lobsters, so you can read each discussion of it.

About

YAVCHN never sees your Hacker News or Lobsters login. The discussion is fetched from each site's public API; to vote or reply, follow the link above the discussion, or the arrow beside a comment, to the source's own site. Without a YAVCHN account, your data stays in this browser. When signed in, pins, collections, notes, blocked domains, and retained reading state are stored with your account and synchronized across devices. Hidden stories and layout stay in this browser. The privacy policy has the details.

Open source: github.com/paulmooreparks/yavchn. Built with PUDL.